


Baptism

by rangerhitomi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - Past Lives, M/M, Past Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 11:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3409079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Nasch comes across Yuma, a civilian with healing powers, and Yuma all but eradicates a plague in the kingdom. Only, it comes with a price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baptism

The gods blessed the United Lands with sunshine, good health, peace, and economic prosperity. They blessed the people with a loving king and queen, along with two beautiful royal children. Twins. A blessing, a gift.

As the children grew older, the people loved them more each day. Prince Nasch, a skilled swordsman, a tactician, headstrong and outspoken; Merag, a spiritual leader, a diplomat, reassuring and firm.

They were far too young when disease struck the kingdom, taking their parents away from the kingdom, away from them. Custom dictated that the boy Prince Nasch become the man King Nasch. With tears streaming down his face and his parents’ bodies barely out of sight – set off in ornate barges across the glassy ocean, a cruel calmness to the raging sorrow in the twins’ hearts – Nasch knelt as his father’s crown was placed on his head.

 _Long live King Nasch_.

Hollow words, spoken by a suffering people who watched more of their loved ones succumb to disease each day, who watched as lesions and sores erupted over their bodies and their breaths to be overcome with coughing fits and blood. Hollow words from a people who wondered if King Nasch would join the list of dead.

Nasch wasn’t one for prayer. That was Merag’s area. But he prayed every morning and every night for the gods to send a blessing to their kingdom, to cure those stricken by disease, and each time it seemed the gods weren’t listening.

* * *

 

Merag brought the boy to him; younger and shorter than Nasch, though not by much, with the most curious red eyes Nasch had ever seen, and Nasch caught himself staring a little too long at them.

 _He’s the answer to our prayers_ , Merag insisted, and Nasch never doubted his sister.

Merag brought a sick man to the audience chamber, to the horror of the entire court, who accused her of endangering not only herself but the king as well. She simply smiled at the boy and murmured encouragement.

He looked up at her, head tilted and brows furrowed in worry, but he reached out and took the sick man by the hand.

Perhaps Nasch expected a flash of light or for the man to be taken by a seizure, but… nothing happened. Nothing he could see, except the man’s eyes opened in amazement and the lesions on his hands disappeared and the boy’s shoulders slumped.

* * *

 

It was a miracle.

Nasch went with Merag and the boy – Yuma – to the city streets, where Yuma took each sick person he found by the hand and healed them. Nasch entertained the notion that this mysterious boy possessed a kind of shadow magic, that he was playing at being a savior to gain the people’s trust for his own gain.

But three weeks passed, and the plague had vanished from the city, and Yuma insisted with a tired voice that he wanted only what was best for his kingdom, and to please his king.

* * *

 

When Nasch broke his arm in a riding accident, Merag summoned Yuma to Nasch’s chambers.

“You should be more careful, my king,” Yuma murmured, wincing as he traced his right thumb and forefinger along the break. Nasch carefully watched Yuma; touching the king seemed to cause Yuma intense discomfort.

“Don’t be afraid of hurting me,” Nasch said gently. The pain dulled with each stroke of Yuma’s fingers, until it vanished completely.

Yuma repeated that he wanted only what was best for his kingdom, and to please his king. When he finished, he lifted himself from the floor, propping his body on his left arm, and stumbled from the room.

* * *

 

Nasch stood behind Yuma, who sat next to Merag on her bed. She shook violently, face shining with sweat, as her fever reached a peak. Yuma took a deep breath and cupped her face in his hands. Nasch watched in relief as her shivering slowed and stopped, and her body relaxed. He laid a hand on Yuma’s shoulder.

“You’ve done so much for us,” he said quietly.

“I just want what’s best for my…”

Relief gave way to panic as Yuma’s body slumped forward, taken in a fit of coughing. With his heart pounding, Nasch held Yuma by the shoulders and paled as Yuma coughed up blood.

* * *

 

Merag dabbed cold water onto Yuma’s feverish forehead and held Yuma’s right hand. Nasch could see the dislodged bone even under the lesions covering Yuma’s arm.

He didn’t understand what had happened; Yuma was a healer, a blessed man. He did the right thing; why, then, was he cursed with the same afflictions that he had cured?

“What do we do?” he whispered.

Merag shook her head. “All we can do… is keep him comfortable until…” She dabbed at Yuma’s forehead again and let the tears fall. Nasch wrapped his arm around her shoulders and took Yuma’s other hand.

 _Until he dies_.

* * *

 

Yuma woke occasionally, where he spent five minutes at a time coughing, and he ruined one of Nasch’s nightshirts and three quilts but Nasch held him gently despite the dangers of Yuma’s lesions, and let Yuma cough into his chest while Nasch stroked the boy’s hair.

All he could do was keep Yuma comfortable, and he felt so helpless.

* * *

 

Merag found him one morning lying in Yuma’s bed, holding Yuma tightly to his chest. Yuma’s ragged breaths were getting worse, but when she whispered to Nasch that there might be a way to purify Yuma’s infirmities, Nasch felt a spark of hope in his grieving heart.

* * *

 

Nasch stumbled down the uneven stone staircase in the total darkness, clutching Yuma’s frail body to his chest. With each uncertain step, he despaired that he would slip, and he and Yuma would pitch forward into the black abyss. It made sense, now, why this spring existed on the only mountainous island in his kingdom.

Halfway down, Yuma opened his eyes into the darkness. “Who… who’s there?”

Nasch slid his foot along the edge of the stair and took another cautious step. “Nasch.”

“Ah… my king… I’m sorry you have to see me in such a state.” Yuma’s voice was weak. Nasch prayed he wouldn’t succumb to another coughing fit. It was hard enough walking down these stairs without Yuma’s body thrashing.

“I can’t see anything,” Nasch grumbled. How far down were they? How long did they have left to go?

Yuma’s weak laugh turned into a quiet cough, and Nasch paused to allow it to pass. “Where are we going?”

“I’m going to baptize you.”

He didn’t know what to make of Yuma’s silence.

“I see,” Yuma said finally. “Do you despair for my soul, my king?”

“I despair for your life. Did you know that healing everyone would do this to you?”

Yuma’s face pressed into his chest. “Yes.”

“And you did it anyway?”

“I wanted only to-”

“Serve your kingdom and your king, I get it.” Nasch clenched his teeth. He hadn’t meant to snap at the boy. “I just want to make sure you live a long life of service to me.”

“I can do nothing more than heal. After this, I doubt very much you will let me do so.”

“I can think of other services you can render.”

He realized too late what meaning Yuma could take out of that when Yuma chuckled weakly. “How very forward of you, my king.”

“You fool, I didn’t mean…” He grimaced and felt the heat in his face. He thanked the gods for the consuming darkness at that moment. “Never mind. Be silent so I can focus on getting us there alive.”

Yuma fell silent for the remainder of the arduous journey. After what seemed an eternity, Nasch saw the soft red light of his destination, and the ground beneath him leveled out. It was an ornate spring, a perfect oval, walled in with pure marble flecked with blood-red rubies the size of Nasch’s fist. They reflected the ethereally glowing water, casting red light throughout the chamber.

“It’s beautiful,” Yuma murmured tiredly.

 _It’s a holy spring, blessed by the gods,_ Merag had explained.  _As a sign of faith, the afflicted must descend the staircase in total darkness and be submersed in the spring three times._

The spring looked to be only a couple of feet deep, maybe to Nasch’s thighs, and he took a deep breath before wading into it, his cape drifting lazily on the water’s surface. It was unusually warm water for a spring so far underground.

_The first time, he must wear his clothing to cleanse them of the sickness._

“I’m going to set you in the water,” he said.

Yuma nodded, eyes closed, and Nasch knelt to place the boy in the water. Yuma’s red tunic and trousers billowed around him. The reflected light from the rubies paled in comparison to the way Yuma made the water glow.

He was a beautiful boy, and Nasch allowed himself a small smile of admiration before lifting Yuma from the water. Yuma shivered and pulled himself close to Nasch. Nasch examined Yuma’s bare arms. They were free from lesions, and Nasch felt overwhelming relief.

“It’s working,” he whispered. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Yuma mumbled into Nasch’s chest. “Is it over?”

“Not yet.” Nasch hesitated. “Yuma, the next thing we have to do…”

_The afflicted must then shed his clothes and bathe a second time, to cleanse him of the sickness._

“How is your arm?” Nasch said instead, to buy more time.

Yuma moved his fingers experimentally and winced. “Still broken.”

Nasch kept from sighing with difficulty. “I’m… I’m going to help you remove your clothing.” The red glow masked the embarrassment in his face.

Yuma’s eyes widened. “Wh- oh, no, my king, I can…”

Nasch shook his head. “Hold still and let me help you or this will only hurt you.”

Yuma squeezed his eyes shut and allowed Nasch to untie his tunic. “I’m sorry for putting you through all of this. You have a kingdom to run and you’re wasting your time with me.”

“You’re not a waste of time,” Nasch muttered, glad for the conversation to take his mind off the fact that he was cradling a half-naked young man in his arms. It was about to get more uncomfortable for the both of them. His fingers trembled under the water as he tried to unclasp Yuma’s belt. “I have a duty to my people, and you have done more for me and them than anyone ever could.”

Yuma placed his good hand over Nasch’s. “I think I can manage this with one hand.”

Nasch breathed in relief and nodded, turning his head so Yuma could undress with some privacy. “How did you come to be able to heal?”

“I don’t know. I just… held my friend’s hand as she coughed up blood and then… she was better.”

“Only you weren’t.”

“I felt it, a bit. But it wasn’t so bad. I could hide it.”

“Until I forced you to heal dozens. Please forgive me. If there is anything I can ever do…”

“I just wanted to serve-”

“I know.”

Yuma set his clothes on the side of the spring wall and sat back in the water. “Well, here goes.”

Nasch turned back to Yuma, despite himself. Yuma held his arms out to the side, eyes closed again, suspended eerily in the shallow water.

He had a beautiful body, and Nasch couldn’t deny that to himself.

After a minute, Yuma’s eyes opened and he pushed himself to a sitting position. He glanced away from Nasch and pulled his legs up to his chest.

“Um… so what’s next?”

He sounded embarrassed, and Nasch felt ashamed that he had been gazing at Yuma’s unclothed body with so much curiosity for so long. He cleared his throat and cast about in his distracted memory for Merag’s final instructions.

_The final time, the afflicted must bathe once more with his clothes, to close the cycle._

“You can get dressed again.”

Yuma nodded, relief etched on his face, and Nasch turned his entire body away this time.

“My king-”

“You can call me Nasch.”

There was a brief pause. “Okay, um, Nasch… thank you.”

Nasch tried to retort with something like  _you idiot, I’ve already told you that you don’t owe me any thanks_  but found his throat constricted. He nodded instead.

Yuma’s hand touched his shoulder. Nasch never would have allowed anyone to touch him without permission, but… Yuma was a different case. He turned his head to meet Yuma’s warm gaze. “I mean it. Thank you. There are few men in the world who would go to such lengths for someone in the state I was in.”

Nasch took Yuma’s hand from his shoulder and placed his other hand on the small of Yuma’s back. “One more time, then.”

He knelt, pulling Yuma with him, and submerged Yuma’s body in the water a final time.

When he lifted Yuma again, Yuma inhaled deeply and smiled. “I can breathe.” He opened his eyes. “I haven’t breathed this well in months.”

Yuma was cured, but he held onto Nasch’s hand and drew closer. The fact that they were alone, deep in a cavern buried in a mountain hit Nasch at that moment. It seemed to hit Yuma too, the way he averted his eyes and smiled shyly.

“Nasch… you said if there was anything you could do to repay me…”

“Right now?” Nasch muttered. By the way his heart fluttered, he had a feeling he knew what Yuma would ask. He knew how he would respond.

Yuma took a deep breath. “May I have the honor of a kiss from my king?”

Nasch brushed his thumb against Yuma’s chin. What a surreal setting, standing knee-deep in warm water, surrounded by the unearthly red glow of the gems around them. He pulled Yuma closer and smiled down at him as Yuma gazed up in anticipation. “Only if your lips can heal as well as your hands.”


End file.
